Originally Posted by dbj1000

It's all very well being a PC user who prefers PCs to Macs, but at least get your facts about Macs right.

Microsoft did invest $150M in Apple... in 1997. At the time Apple was in financial trouble and you may be right that Gates did it to avoid another antitrust case. However, that was 7 years ago. Today Apple is growing faster than any other computer company on earth.

Yes OS X is good. The line about not having the support of apps is weak. The general quality of software for the Mac makes a convert out of almost anyone who uses Apple's iLife suite of applications such as iTunes, iPhoto and iMovie. I know that on a PC you have a choice of 75 software titles for each application you may need to do, but most users would swap them all for ONE with the quality and ease-of-use of an iTunes, for example.

And as for Viruses... having companies try to sell suckers an anti-virus package doesn't mean that there are viruses - it means there are plenty of suckers. There is no known virus loose in the wild for Mac OS X - all those virus definitions that Norton protect Mac users from are Microsoft Macro Viruses which live through the poor security of MS Office on both Macs and PCs. The only real argument for having anti-virus on a Mac is to stop you forwarding infected documents on to your poor virus-riddled PC using friends.

Virus writers can't be bothered to code for the Mac platform? Good! As a user, I don't care WHY there are no Mac viruses. I just care that there aren't any.

With a Mac I now have 100% interoperability with the Windows world in terms of documents. I have no fear of a PC riddled with hidden spyware (70%+ of PCs have one or more spyware package hidden on them - isn't that the official figure right now?). I have no fear of having to rebuild my digital life when it's eaten by today's latest PC virus. Finally, I have the easiest to use, best designed computer on the market.

So I'll live with Apple's 5% market share, its "lack" of software titles and it's "unfamiliar" interface. By all means buy a Dell, but remember that there are other options out there that just could be better in some ways.

Originally Posted by Bob

It would depend on what you intend on using your puter for, for games and hardcore graphics, I wouldn't use Dell, or any of those big names, the puters are shite and even worse to upgrade, and all the shite you get with it, you probably don't need, but if it's your first puter, it's an okay place to start.
Much better to get one custom built to what you'll actually be using it for, be chaeper and get a better machine for the money, can save loads, $400 of parts will get you lot better than double that from dell.

Have a look at www.pricewatch.com for prices at various places.

Originally Posted by Dan725

If you know how, you can't beat building your own PC

Originally Posted by Bushranger

I have Dell PC's for our office and laptops. Some work fine and some don't.
My impression and actual experiece of Dell is that all will be well so long as they don't ship you a 'Friday afternoon special' or you need support.

We recently ordered a slaptop/printer/pc for a new employee - we had problems with the laptop from day one. Shipment of parts was slow and disorganised.

They also sent us two printers (instead of the one we ordered) They have yet to ask for it back but given the price of their 'Dell only' cartridges I'm not suprised...

Originally Posted by Chandler

Video Card - Intel Extreme Graphics 2

The PC is the Dimesion 3000 with an upgraded to the RAM and Hard Drive.